In the original Klingon

[lizbee]

Okay, I may have skipped a few Star Trek movies. But I got to the end of The Motion Picture and realised that I watched II and III only last year, and IV is best watched with friends (and suburbannoir has been keen to watch it for ages). And while there may have once been a fifth Star Trek movie, I can only assume that it was eaten by a mysterious crack in the universe and wiped out of history.

So we hit The Undiscovered Country, for which I have a massive soft spot on account of how it was my very first encounter with the TOS crew. And, y'know, I still love it. It has all the interstellar politics, backstabbing and Walter Koenig that make Babylon 5 so awesome, and I think it might actually have triggered my great love for really awkward dinner scenes.

On the other hand, I am very, very glad that Nichelle Nichols and Brock Peters refused to say the most racist lines in the script, and that the director let them. And I am very glad that Saavik was replaced by Valeris, because I love my Saavik almost as much as Spock does, and I couldn't buy her as a traitor. It is my hope (for the great thing about the newmovieverse is that you can look at old canon with new eyes) that in the AOSverse, Spock Prime seeks out Valeris and guides her development enough that she doesn't start doing epically stupid things like betraying the Federation. Also, Kim Cattral is really, really bad at that whole acting thing, and I don't think it's wholly appropriate to respond to an unwanted mindmeld with orgasm noises.

In short: jolly good movie, does not overstay its welcome, includes Christopher Plummer literally twirling in a chair and quoting Shakespeare. And you could create a drinking game called Spot The Redressed TNG Set, which would be kind of fun, only also weird.

AND NOW I am still having stomach pains from BREAKFAST, so I'm off to bed to rub my belly and feel slightly sorry for myself.

Comments

[jaythenerdkid]

Now I feel all bad that all I know about Star Trek can be summed up as "live long and prosper!" and "KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!" (I know the latter mostly because every time I meet a Trekkie in real life and introduce myself using my RL name, they yell it at me. :P)

[skywaterblue]

IV is a great party movie, for nerds. Get some beer and start quoting along!

But VI is probably my favorite - I've always thought it was underrated. And it's probably my first exposure to TOS as well. (Though I seem to recall endlessly rewinding IV over and over again to see the whaaaales when I was in whales!r!osom phase.)

[krazykitkat]

I do so love that movie.

[jmtorres]

On the other hand, I am very, very glad that Nichelle Nichols and Brock Peters refused to say the most racist lines in the script, and that the director let them.

I don't know this story. Please elaborate?

[lizbee]

It's on the Memory Alpha wiki:

# Uhura originally had a very racist line "Would you let your daughter marry one?" (that is, a Klingon), but the line had to be cut because Nichols absolutely refused to say it. Chekov's line "Guess who's coming to dinner?" was also originally Uhura's, but Nichols considered it also to be racist and declined to say it. The line was moved to Chekov. It was a reference to Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, the first major film to deal with interracial marriage, in which Katherine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, and Sidney Poitier starred.

# On the Special Edition release of Star Trek VI, it was revealed that Brock Peters' scene in the council chamber had to be shot in numerous takes, as he was very uncomfortable with the racial undertones in his lines that the Federation take the opportunity to "bring them to their knees", which was itself, a reference to another film in which that line was said about African Americans.

[amaresu]

5th Star Trek movie? I've heard rumors of it, but thought it was lost to time. This is for the best really.

[purple_smurf]

The only manner in which the rumoured fifth Star Trek film exists is in its novelisation, which I haven't read since about 1994 but I recall thinking even as a 12 or 13 year old was much better than any non-existent film could be.

[gominokouhai]

Ah, VI. I love VI. Doesn't quite pip II, but it's up there.

(You watched II only last year? I can watch II twice in an evening.)

> Also, Kim Cattral is really, really bad at that whole acting thing, and I don't think it's wholly appropriate to respond to an unwanted mindmeld with orgasm noises.

Those are, in fact, exactly the same sounds as she uses for orgasm noises, and the only acting she seems to know how to do. I've just reviewed Sex and the City 1 and 2, and I've heard more of them than any human should bear.

[lizbee]

"(You watched II only last year? I can watch II twice in an evening.)"

Well, I wasn't watching it for the first time, if that's what you mean. In fact, the first time I saw it was when it was released, although I am told I slept through most of it in my baby carrier. (Experiences I will never get to have again: seeing Star Trek movies at a drive-in.)

[fallingtowers]

The Shakespeare references are the main reason why I treasure Star Trek VI so much. I distinctly remember my year as a professor's student assistent at the local chair for Shakespearean Studies when I spent lots of time carrying piles of books to and fro from the Renaissance research library and found the Klingon Language Institute's version of Hamlet on the shelves. I think it was the only time I ever yelled in a university library: "OMG, they have got the original!" Unfortunately, nobody else got the joke.